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Fisher caught in legal storm Galit Rodan Northern News Services Published Monday, January 23, 2012
Instead, Abbott, who is struggling to get his business off the ground, recently appeared in court to answer to charges laid after RCMP and federal fisheries officers raided his Jolliffe Island fish plant and fishing boat Aug. 11, confiscating an estimated $30,000 worth of fish.
Outside the courtroom, the frustrated owner of Great Slave Fish Products Ltd, Abbott told News/North he was out fishing when police and officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) conducted the joint raid with search warrants in hand. Abbott has been charged with eight offences, all punishable under section 78 of the Fisheries Act. When he appeared in territorial court Jan. 10, he had not yet found a lawyer. The case was delayed to Feb. 7 to allow him more time to find representation. The delay would also give both sides enough time to sort through the considerable amount of background information. Proceedings hit a further snag when the presiding judge removed himself due to a possible conflict of interest. "The smoked trout was very good by the way," remarked Judge Brian Bruser upon seeing Abbott, before saying, "probably it would be good if I recused myself." Abbott is charged with fishing without proper registration; failing to properly fill out logbooks; fishing in a restricted area; leaving a gill net in the water for more than 30 hours; fishing with improperly marked gill nets; possessing fish caught in contravention of the Fisheries Act; and trading in muktuk. Section 78 carries the possibility of jail time and serious fines - up to $500,000 and/or two years in jail if the Crown proceeds by indictment, or up to $100,000 and/or one year in jail if the Crown proceeds by summary conviction. Abbott says the charges do not reflect the way he has tried to conduct his business. He paints a picture of an unhelpful DFO with uninformed staff who often weren't able to answer questions, failed to spot or deal with paperwork problems as they arose and could not provide him with proper maps showing restricted fishing zones on Great Slave Lake. When he did finally receive a map, he said it was about four-inches wide by six-inches tall, printed on a sheet of white paper. He showed News/North such a map pulled from a folder of a his legal information. "They're giving us no education whatsoever," he said of DFO. Fisheries officer Gerald Fillatre agreed his department has a role to play in educating commercial fishermen but would not comment on the specifics of the case or Abbott's allegations. "When commercial fishers get their licence there are licence conditions attached to it which say what they must do," said Fillatre. "And we do hand out rules and regulations to them and whenever they have questions we're more than willing to educate them, both on the water and in the office when they come in. Enforcement actions are our last tool for getting compliance." Abbott was not a fisherman before he bought the late Archie Buckley's fish plant a few years ago and the charges, he said, stem from what he views as the growing pains of starting a new business. Abbott said he had high hopes of making the company more sustainable. "We don't waste any fish. We bring it all in here. The jackfish, the lingcod, all this stuff that nobody used to sell," he said. "We're trying to use this resource properly. For them to - after we've been out every single day without missin' it - charge me with leaving out nets too long? That's just a slap in the face." Abbott said he had a tough winter last year: "It cost us more to bring the fish in every day than what we got for it." But by the time the search warrants were executed, Abbott said he had turned things around. His workers were being paid at least $20 per hour to fillet fish and the freezers were full. With the bulk of the season's work done, he was ready to cut back employees' hours and was looking forward to finally seeing his profit margins grow, he said. "They (fisheries officials) came and took it all right then. The perfect time," he said. "And so they grabbed all the fish and left us penniless, basically, and with no stock. So now we've got what's on the receivables coming in. OK, so we'll get a little bit. So we got a little bit here and a little bit there to keep us going. But that's all we can do is keep it going." Though Abbott was able to resume fishing the same day as the seizure, he said the financial loss will force foreclosure on a commercial building he owns in British Columbia and will lose $250,000 in equity. As for the confiscated fish, it was frozen and put in storage. "If a fish is forfeited to the Crown, if we're comfortable that it's fit for human consumption we'll look to give it to groups that could use it," said Fillatre. "And where we're not sure it's fit for human consumption we would give it to dog mushers or the like." Fillatre added that a judge may order the fish forfeited to the Crown, returned to Abbott or that Abbott be reimbursed for the loss.
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